Who are the Betrayers?

David Major, president and founder of The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI Centre) and retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent, addressed ThrillerFest VII, 7/13. The title of his talk was: Insider’s View of Betrayal.

“I want the world to remember the betrayers forever.” David Major July 13, 2012

“I’m going to…try to get Hoover and the Secret Service together…They (the FBI) had the stuff on Oswald but didn’t give it to the Secret Service.” President Lyndon Johnson, September 28, 1964 (commenting to Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield on the Warren Commission Report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy)

Commentary: Mr. Major defined ‘betrayers’ — traitors, as those people who “violate the trust placed in them.” History has shown that betrayal happens when individuals divulge state secrets, but also when they withhold information, as the FBI did before and after the Kennedy assassination, and as the Justice Department has done recently in the Fast & Furious program.

Since World War II there have been 448 traitors apprehended in the United States, according to Mr. Major — including Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen etc. But there has also been betrayal, without accountability, by leaders who believe that withholding information (obstructing justice) somehow serves society and the cause of democracy. Mr. Major commented to LE — “This idea of not revealing information — there’s a long history of that.”